The taste of corruption
Part 3
Cloud's abilities in saber skills and force prowess grew in credibly over the past 12 years, everyone was busy over the problems of the galaxy especially like the fallen Jedi such as Xanatos previous apprentice to Qui-Gon, or the Mandalorian civil war were several Jedi died, Like Siri Tachi, who Cloud suspected She and Obi-wan were getting a little closer than Jedi should. But when things start to settle down with the Mandalorian Qui-Gon and Obi-wan headed for the planet Naboo onboard the Consular-class cruiser Radiant VII, on a mission to resolve a trade dispute, And through that ordeal a lot has happened, the discovery of the Sith, the death of Qui-Gon and a new youngling by the name of Anakin, sky walker has just joined. Cloud has traveled around the galaxy with his master but and as time passed on the notice his master's doubt in the republic. Especially after the Battle of Galidraan and the capture of his former apprentice Komari Vosa, considering the grief of losing his more favorable apprentice, Dooku tried to deal with it by training Cloud to the extreme, letting his emotions out during the training.
But back to the point things obviously took a dark turn, after Obi-wan came back without Qui-Gon and with news about the Sith, All of the padwans tried to make things up to obi-wan, along with Zack, but Cloud notice That his master was in emotional breakdown, watching Dooku he noticed his master doing things that was not the proper Jedi behavior. But today, Our Blonde Jedi can't find his master at all. Cloud has now gained a few more inches and looked to be the age of 19 standing at a good height of 6 feet and his wardrobe is still the same. At the current moment Cloud is with Obi-wan and Zack watching from the second floor as the Younglings learned about the Jedi way and history.
"So your padwan is already chosen huh Master Obi-wan?" Zack elbowed His friend. Obi-wan smiled as he elbowed Zack back, "I'm not a master yet, and I'm just a Jedi knight. But yes the council sees it fit to place Skywalker under my tutelage."
"Must be nice, you and Shaak-Ti are Jedi knights while we still have to be padwans." Cloud said in a sigh, causing both his friend and brother to worry, "Cloud I understand it's not as fair, but you just have to have patience." Obi-wan said. Already sounding like a proper master.
"Come on cloud at least think of it this way, you and I are the strongest padwans the Jedi have," Zack said flexing an arm, with his signature smile. Cloud just looked away and mumbled loudly enough for his brother and friend to hear, "The oldest too." The other young Jedi, both sweat dropped, Cloud can be major downer sometimes. Zack Then noticed the time, "Oh would you look at that, I'm late to train with Master Windu, oh well I should probably by some coffee on the way, look like there was a long line. (Don't know if star wars has coffee, if not then star wars be damned.) Cloud gave his brother a shocked look, Mace Windu is a very strict master and to keep him waiting is just major punishment.
"I'm not sure if I should be amazed how you treat your master's policy's or call you reckless." Obi-wan said laughing at the end when Zack just shrugged and walked at a leisure pace to where he kept his master waiting. Obi-wan turned to Cloud, "But Zack wasn't lying earlier about how you are one of the strongest padwans, you give me a run form my money in our spars, and I'm no pushover even with other Jedi knights." Cloud stood up straighter, it was true, no other padwan stood close to Cloud's saber skills except for Zack, but now Cloud can only spar with Jedi Knights and masters, cause the other padwans can't help him get stronger. "I just wish I could take the trials already, I mean I'm 38 who care if I look 19 years old, and I'm older than you for crying out loud." Obi-wan sighed, Cloud may be 11 years older, and being Gaian makes him age slower, but his attitude hasn't aged at all, even Zack as childish as he was mature enough to accept the decision of the Jedi council. "I understand your frustration, but you have to understand, it's not just about age it's about maturity, you still act like a teen."
Cloud gave Obi-wan a glare, 'That's because I am a teen, on Gaia I am at least.' "Ok fine you win. But just because of that I'm going to go all out in the training room, you here." Obi-wan smiled, 'Yup you still act like a kid.'
Obi-wan lead the way to one of the sparring rooms, where they saw master Cid Drallig, watching over the youngling's spars. "Good after noon master Drallig," Obi- wan bowed and Cloud followed the example, he was never the one for formalities.
"After noon, Kenobi, padwan Fair what brings you both back here to my class, don't tell me you need to relearn the basics." The wise battle master said with mirth in his eyes, as he gave a small laugh. The younglings Cloud noticed where watching the interaction glad for something to distract them from learning. Cloud noticed a young human girl with black hair and blue eyes and a light skin tone staring intently on his sabers, 'Guess she likes dual wielding.'
"Not really master, though I would like to request some training on a later date, I was hoping if Cloud and I could spar in this room, but since you are teaching we can find another." Cid Drallig look like he was thinking something until he turned to the class, "Ok everyone we have a special lesson, we will stop learning about the saber techniques and watch two prodigies of the Jedi temple at work, pay attention carefully, both of them are on a level above any normal Jedi." Cid looked back as he nodded to the two younger Jedi. Obi-wan bowed in thanks as he took place on the opposite side of the room, the younglings and their teacher going to the second floor to watch as Obi-wan switched on his Light saber the blow weapon shining in all its glory, as he got into his Soresu stance. "Come on less you're afraid?" Obi-wan mocked Cloud in a teasing manner.
Cloud had his arms crossed as he stood placing all his weight on one leg, Then after scratching his head, he rolled his shoulders stood up straight and gripped both sabers in his hand and angled them so when he turned them on the formed an X right in front of his face, gleaming in their white and blood red light. "No holds barred, I'm going all out." Getting into his Jar' Kai, Obi-wan mentally frowned at the form, over the years Cloud became so in tuned with the sixth saber form that he modified it to make his fighting style unique, he called it Kuro-Shikon Witch was ancient Gaian for shadow fang.
Cloud started the fight by charging into Obi-wans position, in a quick force enhanced movements, But Obi-wan was a master of Soresu, so he simply blocked the incoming blades with ease, but the strikes of the Sixth from were formed so well and flowed perfectly that, if Obi-wan made a mistake, Cloud can easily win the duel. The swinging and constant blurring of the Silver and red blades is what showed the transition from the normal Jar'Kai to Kuro-Shikon. As Obi-wan started to sweat, he noticed that Cloud has complete control of the fight; Obi-wan can only parry and block.
The younglings were enthralled by the fight, while Cid watched with a calculating eye, "interesting when many Jedi try to create a unique style, it usually has openings, And this Kuro-Shikon is really affective, relying on quick sudden and strong movements in rapid succession to overpower the opponent, but it obviously takes a lot of stamina to use this style, so using it on someone as skilled in combat like Kenobi was unwise.' Drallig notice that even though the style takes away a lot of energy and stamina Cloud has yet to slow down his pace, as Obi-wan seemingly deflecting the blows smoothly, but Cid knew better, Obi-wan was being pushed back, the tide of the battle is in Clouds favor, and Cloud won't let it go any other way.
'Come one, Come on, and come on!' Cloud thought, He was satisfied how the battle turned out from the beginning full tilt from the get go like he liked, but he is getting frustrated that he has yet found an opening in Obi-wans defense. Obi-wan took note of his friend's frustration and distraction and with a quick flick of the wrist and with the right amount of force, he dis armed Cloud's White saber and force pushed him back for some breathing room. Cloud back flipped from the force push landing perfectly fine. He was shocked that Obi-wan disarmed one of his blades, but didn't have time to think about it as Obi-wan to the aggressive turn and now fought Cloud using Makashi, forcing Cloud to go on the defensive.
The Younglings started to enjoy the fight and watched in awe, but Cid was mentally congratulating Obi-wan, not many Knights can come out of a situation like that, The Kuro-Shikon was a strong style but has a lot of imperfections, that if you think calmly you can exploit them, and it seems Obi-wan found an opening when Cloud slowed down and got a little bit more sloppy. You couldn't tell by just watching but thanks to his experience Cid Drallig could see both openings in the young Jedi's styles. 'They have come a long way, but still have longer to go.'
Obi-wan Back Cloud into a corner literally, as he was about to once again beet Cloud, but Cloud didn't train all these years with Dooku for nothing. As Obi-wan disarmed his other saber, Cloud did an un orthodox move, by not putting up any resistance in his blade allowing it to fly away, as he focused more on the force in his hands, and before Obi-wan could react, Cloud pushed him back as far as he could causing the Jedi Knight to hit the other wall and fall to a knee. Only to her a battle cry as he looked up to see Cloud descending as both his sabers returned to his hands, and quickly descended on to Obi-wan, rolled out of the way and stood up using the Light saber to block the strike on his back as he quickly turned to face his opponent, only to be blinded by the quick movements of Kuro-Shikon again.
Cloud knew it this will be the first time he beat obi-wan, in the past eight years. Finally finding a way through Obi-wans Soresu again, but just as the final swing came down to disarm Obi-wan Cloud felt a tremble in the force as vision showed itself. Cloud was standing in the shadows, watching two cloaked figures; one was kneeling in front of the other. "Rise Darth Tyranus, my new apprentice. The Cloaked figure said as the other taller figure stood up, as Darth Tyranus, took a saber from the man turned and switched it on showing the typical Sith red saber, and with the dim Glow Cloud saw a familiar face. Count Dooku.
The vision through Cloud of guard, for when he disarmed Kenobi he didn't react in time for Kenobi to use his bare hands to stop disarm and knock Cloud on the Ground, with a sweep kick. Cloud stayed on the ground with a pained look on his face, partly due to the sudden introduction to the ground as he looked at the ceiling, but mainly due to what he just saw. Obi-wan appeared in his vision with his hand held out, a small smile on his face. "That was dangerously close, you almost got me Cloud." Kenobi said when he helped Cloud up. Cloud forced the vision from his mind 'I'll figure out some other time.' As he used the force to get his sabers witch rolled from his position when he hit the ground.
The younglings started to clap as they were so excited by the display, except for the little human girl, who watched surprised that the dual wielding blonde lost. One of the younglings class mates a Blue Twi'lek girl notice her friend wasn't so excited and walked up to her. "You ok Serra you look off?" The human girl identified as Serra looked to her class mate, "Nothing Aayla I'm just thinking." The Twi'lek nodded in understanding and joined in with the other enthusiastic younglings. Cid Drallig was staring intently at Cloud, Cloud should of one but at the end something happened that made him loose focus. He watched as the two friends soon got swarmed by the curious younglings.
A few hours late Cloud was sitting with master Yoda, "Master May I have some time," Yoda motioned to Cloud to sit, "Troubled you are, I sense" The Jedi master said. Cloud nodded, "I have had this vision, and it involves the Sith." If possible the temperature in the room dropped and Yoda, looked older as he worried, "Troublesome it is, Dangerous to witness, visions of the dark side. What was it you see?" Cloud explained how he saw two cloaked figures and how both turned out to be sith and the new apprentice's name, but he left out that he saw Dooku's face. Yoda looked to be disturbed, "Troubling it is, a new apprentice to the dark side. Search we must for this Darth Tyranus."
Cloud then left for Yoda to gather the council, leaving Cloud to enter his room, getting a service droid to bring him something to eat. Clouds room was simple, with a bed and a desk along with a walk-in closet in the main room with a door to the side for the bathroom. Cloud took of his Jedi robes until he only had the vest and pants on, as he jumped on his bed. Cloud heard his holo communicator in the room signaling someone trying to call him. After a cat like stretch Cloud sat up and activated the communicator, and was shocked to see his master.
"Ahh there you are Cloud, I apologize for not showing up in person but something urgent has come across," Cloud was about to ask what happened but was cut off, "No time to talk I can only keep this channel secured for a while, anyways quickly get dressed and come to the planet Serenno And land in this docking bay. Come alone, don't let anyone know, and don't be followed." And with that the transition ended and Cloud was confused and suspicious. Serenno is the home planet of Dooku and is not a republic planet, if anything; Dooku is in charge of the planet due to his royal blood. Cloud didn't like this at all, he was tempted to go and tell the council of this suspicious activity. Cloud was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a knock, imagine his surprise to see Shaak-ti with two trays of food, "Hey there Cloud, hope you don't mind I join you." Once again out of the eyes of the public Shaak-Ti acts more playful and girlish when it's just her and Cloud, there brother and sister like bond holding strong.
"No I don't mind," He said with a smile, Shaak-Ti grown up to be quite the woman and cloud would be lying if he said he didn't have lustful thoughts for his friend, but he just blamed hormones lasting twice as long on his race. "So I heard from Obi-wan you almost beat him, dangerously close too." She said sitting next to him on the bed. As the two ate quietly for a while, "Yeah Obi-wan is an amazing fighter but thanks to our spars I can make my Kuro-Shikon better." Shaak-Ti grunted as her mouth was full but it was obvious she was happy for him. Cloud tried to Teach Shaak-Ti his new fighting style but as good as she was she couldn't keep up with him, and she slowed down a lot, making Cloud realize his fighting style is easy for him because he is Gaian. But Shaak-Ti still practiced with him and made big progress being able to use the form for about 10 minutes long, while Cloud could go 30 minutes.
"So I just did my trial of Insight the last one, and I think I might become a Knight now, the will tell me in a few minutes, and I would like it if you were there to congratulate me." Shaak-Ti looked so excited that Cloud had to remind himself she only acts like this in front of him and only him, Cloud out of instinct embraced the Togruta woman, and held her in his arms, Shocking Shaak-Ti. "This is great, but I'm afraid I have to go I was told to help police the cities gangs soon." Shaak-ti looked a little disappointed and in returned embraced Cloud. The two stayed in each other's arms, and Cloud could feel both her and his heart rates increase. They both knew what they were feeling was more than friendship now, and it doesn't help they know each other better than anyone, and what they're doing isn't Jedi like.
Cloud was now in Coruscant docks, as he looked for a ship, he knew that if he took a Jedi ship it would be tracked, and if he hired a pilot there would be a loose end, so that left stealing a ship. Cloud knows what he was doing is wrong but his Master who's the closest thing to his father calls him over for a secret mission, he just had to go. Morals are damned.
Cloud had his Black silver outlined robes and Black cloak as he watched as a crew of 5 men and 7 droids head to a Consular class cruiser being 110 meters long, Feeling the force was telling him something, he got close so he can hear the people talk, "Ok you droids keep the ship up and running were going to find the captain. The droids seem to be basic droids, a three Astromech droid droid a one medical droid and five guard droids. Cloud watched the men leave the ship unguarded as he ran up behind the five guard droids there was two at the front of the ship and one on each side. Bringing out this ionic Taser, he disabled the five guard droids with ease and without getting caught, dragged them into the ship, through the back entrance. On the inside the ship it was ten feet in height and the entrance was where you would store the cargo, in the back. After piling the guard droids to the side an Astromech droid saw him making a bunch of sounds until he disabled it with the ion. He set to work on reprogramming them which took him about 10 minutes to get all of them to recognize him as a non-hostile and everything else to be not their master.
"Take this and reprogram the other droids to follow the code Odessa." Cloud told the Astromech droid which was known as R1-D3. The program Odessa was the program he installed and named so that he is their new master. "Thank the force I paid attention to the droid programing class." He said as he activated the Guard droids, he realized they were all HKB-3 hunter killer droids. "Close and guard the entrance." And the droids complied. "Alright now to start up and fly this thing." The ship Cloud took was the shape of a T but with a small cockpit and one giant hall way starting from the storage room, to the multiple quarters, where you would keep a crew and passengers, to a main hall with a few seats and bar table, a service droid and protocol droid laid deactivated against the wall. Then off to the sides where rooms where he guessed would be a medical room and turret control room. And straight ahead was a blast door instead of a wall, Cloud realized it was lock by a code.
Cloud got frustrated and knew that the owners of the ship will come soon, so instead of wasting time to hack, or check if a droid knows the code he simply made himself a door to walk through, and now he was in the cockpit starting up the engines with a six foot tall two feet wide rectangle hole in the blast door. What don't blame him, yeah he could hack the code but he wasn't the best hacker out there, he would run out of time. Cloud worked at a furious pace, starting this thing up was a two man job, and being one person took a longer time for him to start it up. As a matter of fact when the engines where ready he heard shouting not that far away, knowing that the owners returned. Cloud quickly departed, taking a few blaster shots that did barely anything against the ships armor.
Cloud started to panic as republic star ships soon followed the stolen cruiser, as he refused to hail the incoming transitions. This was dumb, now if he gets caught he would be exiled and branded a criminal, if he doesn't lose them soon he would be shot down. Cloud was brought out of his panic state by the beeps and whirls of R1-D3, and he thought of an extreme counter measure. He could easily command R-1 and the other Astromech droids to take control of the guns and shoot down pursuing ships, but will he really kill them. Maybe if he turned back around reprogram the droids and return without resistance he can still be a Jedi, if he explained to them what Dooku asked of him. Cloud was about to turn back until they opened fire on his ship, checking the damage report it seems that they were serious about destroying the ship. 'Really they would blow up a ship just to stop a theft, that's stupid,' Cloud was irritated, but for some reason this whole ordeal irritated him more than it should turning the irritation to anger, not thinking straight he gave a command. "R1 Shoot down the enemy." And in a couple of minutes the pursuing ships were shot down killing the pilots within and causing property damage, Cloud felt relived as his ship was no longer in danger and was now leaving the planets gravitational pull. More ships appeared but they got shot down, then before any of the stronger bigger ships showed, Cloud set the coordinates to the planet of Serenno in the hyper drive and was now beyond republic reach.
Since it would take a few hours to arrive Cloud took the chance to customize the droids, programs a bit to his liking, "since there here might as well make them my property.' Was his mentality, he didn't change much except made them respond to their new names. R1 was now Spark, and the other two Astromech were named Bolt and Shock, he made it so that Bolt and Shock would always monitor and repair and do the maintenance of the ship, while Spark was his more personal Astromech droid, he then activated the protocol droid, which introduced itself as P2RO, and it was now serving as his future translator, and well basically what a protocol droid does. The Service droid known as Mattie and he ordered her to prepare dinner, hey if a server droid was in here there had to be food to serve. Cloud also made the HKB-3 Droids respond to just killer droids and made one of the droids the leader of the five battle droids, since it had the better combat capability's and while the others where a gray color he was Black.
After checking what the ship had to offer, he found that the medical supplies was top notch his droids are fully updated and the cargo hold held six blasters pistols and over two dozen grenades, and plenty of blaster rifles all the other containers were empty or just had emergency supplies like food and water. Cloud fancied himself the captain's corridors as he lay on the bed waiting for the arrival to Serenno. His light sabers off to the side Cloud stared at the Holocron he found 12 years ago on Illum. Not once has he made the Holocron work completely, he couldn't get past the code.
Activating the Holocron for the thousandth time he stared at the cloaked woman in the image, "Nothing is impossible with the force. Light or darkness it doesn't matter, what you do with your power is what really matters." The cryptic lady said. "How should I use my power?" Cloud asked the hologram the same question he always said. "Speak to me The Jedi Code and we shall see." Cloud took a breath as he said, "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion there is Serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no Death, there is the force." Cloud said as the elder woman bowed then said, "Now the Sith code." Once again Cloud found himself at the place he couldn't get past, the Jedi are not taught the Sith code, and now the recently active sith just showed up they couldn't have time to preach there code.
Cloud let out a frustrated yell as he shouted to the hologram, "Why does it matter!" The hologram then did the same sinister smirk, "In order to find one's self they must walk both in light and darkness." And with that the Holocron went back to its pyramid shaped form, leaving a frustrated and confused Cloud. Cloud in turned walked out of his room and into the main room, to where the table was with a plate of food steaming as Mattie awaited her master to give her a command, "Thank you Mattie you can go rest till I need you, "Cloud said as he sat. Thinking over what he should do when he arrived while he ate.
The time came when Cloud arrived and docked where Dooku told him to, which was easy since the landing pad was twice the size of the cruiser. Cloud told the Killer droids to not let anyone in the ship as he walked out leaving with only his blades on his hips and the cowl of his cloak over his head. Cloud walked down the entrance hall and noticed they were completely empty and the Lightning was getting dimmer the further he went. This continued until he reached a room shaped like a hexagon with a spiral stair case and the place was dimly lit as if the light source was just a simple fire. Something was not right and at the moment when he felt a cold draft through the force he knew it was a trap, activating his silver blade he managed to deflect incoming blaster shots from confederacy droids, Cloud got into the Soresu form as he deflected fire from 20 droids that soon surrounded him.
Acting by instinct he deflected the bolts back destroying a few droids allowing him to move freely to cut them down turning them to scrap metal, he used to force to enhance his speed and pull the droids close to him so he can cut them all faster, and in a span of 40 seconds they were all scrapped. Cloud had to sort his panicking mind, as he realized that his master is already Darth Tyranus and tried to kill him with these droids. That was until he heard a voice that made him freeze in fear. "Good very good, you have improved a lot these past years," Cloud turned to see his master in the dark robes of his vision at the top of the stair case, as the count activated the sinister red saber and jumped down to face his former apprentice. "Then again I should have known mere battle droids don't stand a chance on my apprentice. You should fight seriously or this would end quickly." With that said the Count lunged to his former apprentice forcing cloud to do a back flip to get away, but when he landed it was by his harsh training with his master that he parried the incoming blade with his saber, quickly bringing out his second blade he use Soresu and Jar'Kai to stay alive. It wasn't until He and Dooku held of each other's blades and stood their neither side giving in as they stared into each other's eyes. Cloud was shocked to say that his master's eyes showed no anger, but in fact great sorrow. But his surprised allowed Dooku to knee him in the stomach and force push him away into a wall, and When Cloud hit the Floor the push was so strong he lost grip on both his sabers.
When Cloud looked up he managed to roll to the side as he felt something hot and smelt ozone in the air. It took him a moment to realize he barely dodged force lightning that came out of his master's hand. Dooku sent another torrent of Lightning and only felt a little pride as he watched his former apprentice dive under using the force with his feet to propel him towards Dooku as his hands called back the sabers. Dooku blocked the incoming blades with his own masterly deflecting them with minimal effort, but was caught off guard when Cloud did an unorthodox move of involving his feet in combat, after ducking under Dooku's blade he sweep kicked Dooku, but the new Sith back flipped away in order to be facing a two flying sabers come at him, but he quickly deflected them off with the force but couldn't react in time when Cloud used his superior sped to get in close enough to put his hands on the counts stomach and use the force to repel his former master as hard as he could.
Dooku quickly recovered by flipping and kicking of the wall to once again lunge at the young Gaian trying to separate the blondes head from its own body. But his blade was met with a flash of red and silver, as Cloud blocked his attack with a mighty cross block and then kicked Dooku with the force enhancing his strength. The darth was surprised he never saw his former apprentice fight like this, he knew the boy was beyond novice in saber skills and can adapt quickly in battle, but this Jedi, is it the same Cloud from before. Dooku watched as his student charged at him with a wild shout, Dooku realized the boy is now fighting in pure instinct naturally using the seventh form Juyo. As the chaotic strikes became unpredictable for Dooku, forcing him to defend for his life.
Cloud was furious, His master the only person who he could call a father not only called him here to be ambushed and then attack him, has the guts to pity him and feel sorry. Cloud didn't know what happened next but knowing that if he went back to the republic he would be exiled, and if he doesn't escape he would die, Cloud never been betrayed and now he will show his master what a mistake it was to corner a feral wolf.
Dooku could feel he has angered his apprentice and after going a more comfortable position as he realized that the attacks are sloppy and slow, he can now end this fight. And with the quick succession that only a master of sword play can do he disarmed the gray saber and cut off the left hand of his apprentice, and even though he lost his hand Cloud still tried to fight as he though his right hand to try and break Dooku's jaw but was though back and then electrocuted. Dooku kept the flow of electric going till he knew he knocked out his apprentice instead of killed, at least he hoped.
Dooku stared at his unconscious student, 'He will do nicely' was the thought as he had a medical droid appear from nowhere, "Keep him alive until he awakes then toss him in the dungeon. Notify me immediately when he is awake. And with that the Count walked back up the stairs missing his apprentice moving as he tried to fight off the overwhelming pain, as he tried to stay awake. Sadly the blonde Jedi finally became unconscious and awaited the force to claim him.
Can Someone please tell me if they like this story I mean people are still reading it but I'm not sure if it is good or bad, I need some reviews on this story. I don't want to scrap this story.
